Since the impact of any amendment or privatization would be on masses, the government should know the mind of masses through concerning parties, including different organisations, he suggested
Mathura: A section of Uttar Pradesh power department employees on Thursday said it will go on protest if the Centre moves ahead with the Electricity (amendment) Bill 2020 without hearing their concerns properly. Any attempt to place the bill in a haste in Parliament without giving adequate opportunity to concerned parties would be opposed tooth and nail, UP Power Engineers Association President V P Singh told reporters.
“15 lakh employees and engineers of power department of the country including large chunk of employees and engineers of UP would be forced to adopt agitational approach, if they would not be heard properly,” he said.
The government should first disclose the basic purpose of the proposed bill, he added.
“We are opposed to the bill, since it gives inkling of privatization,” he said.
Since the impact of any amendment or privatization would be on masses, the government should know the mind of masses through concerning parties, including different organisations, he suggested.
The official claimed that the procedure adopted for getting concurrence of the states is also not transparent.
The Union Power Minister is holding a meeting of power ministers of states on Friday through video conferencing even though chief ministers or power ministers of 11 states have expressed their reservation through letters which shows that the exercise is a formality only, he alleged.
As the time allotted for video conferencing of the minister is 35 minutes only, how the representatives of different states would raise their objection in such a short span of time, Prabhat Singh,General Secretary of UP Power Engineers Association questioned.
All India Power Engineers Federation Chairman Shailendra Dubey suggested that the government should refer the proposed bill to the standing committee on power for detailed discussion.
“By completing the formality through video conferencing “, he said, “would invite wrath of consumers of UP who have the first hand experience of poor performance of power supply in Agra by a private company”.
Source: PTI
